ick mentions that in Persia there are many oxen entirely white, with
small blunt horns and humps on their backs. They are very strong, and
carry heavy burdens. When about to be loaded, they drop down on their
knees like the Camel, and rise again when their burdens are properly
fastened.

THE BORNOU OX,

which Col. Smith considers a distinct species, is likewise white, of a
very large size, with hunched back, and very large horns, which are
couched outwards and downwards, like those of the African Buffalo, with
the tip forming a small half-spiral revolution. The corneous external
coat is very soft, distinctly fibrous, and at the base not much thicker
than a human nail; the osseous core full of vascular grooves, and inside
very cellular, the pair scarcely weighing four pounds. The skin passes
insensibly to the horny state, so that there is no exact demarcation
where the one commences or the other ends. The dimension of a horn
are:--length measured on the curve, three feet seven inches;
circumference at base, two feet; circumference midway, one foot six
inches; circumference two thirds up the horn, one foot; length in a
straight line, from base to tip, one foot five inches and a half. The
species has a small neck, and is the common domestic breed of Bornou,
where the Buffalo is said to have small horns.

Leguat, in his 'Voyages in 1720,' states that the oxen are of three
sorts at the Cape of Good Hope, all of a large size, and very active;
some have a hump on the back, others have the horns long and pendent,
while others have them turned up and well shaped, as in English cattle.

[Illustration: Zebu.--(_Var. delta._)]

THE DOMESTIC OXEN OF THE HOTTENTOTS, CALLED BACKELEYS, BACKELEYERS, OR
BAKELY-OSSE.

_Bos ----?_

The following particulars relating to these Oxen are taken from the
highly interesting work '_The Present State of the Cape of Good Hope_,'
by Peter Kolben, who visited that colony in 1705, and remained there
during a period of eight years.

"The Hottentots have a sort of oxen they call Backeleyers, or fighting
oxen; they use them in their wars, as some nations do elephants; of the
taming and farming of which last creatures upon the like discipline the
Hottentots as yet know nothing. They are of great use to them, too, in
the government of their herds at pasture; for, upon a signal from their
commanders, they will fetch in stragglers, and bring the herds within
compass. They will likewise run